Page 41 - Inside Mexico News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

If you asked me ten years ago would we be doing some of the tactics and missions we're doing today, i would have said, absolutely not. >> reporter: since 2004, the state department says 200 americans have been killed in mexico and nearly all caught up in the vicious firefights between rival drug cartels. it is no different even along this peaceful 28-mile long lake straddling the u.s.-mexican border two hours north of mcallen. >> we've had along the border, shootings. we've had along the border, murders, home invasions, burglaries, rapes. all types of crime where it's associated with what i ca...

>> one thing you have to understand is how well coordinated this is and what the level of scouting and planning and organization is. >> right coming up. >> reporter: these videos of chases at first made to sense. >> yeah. i got it. >> reporter: drug runners caught in the u.s. and then racing back to mexico. >> coming up to the river. >> reporter: their stolen vehicles hurled full speed into the rio grande. >> oh, my god. right there. >> reporter: at first, law enforcement believed these were desperate attempts to escape. then they began to hear radio traffic. coordinates. >> right there. oh-oh...

Hide tons of marijuana in. >> reporter: so based on your sources and your intelligence, when they began to encroach on what would be a drug deal, they were looked upon as potentially -- >> as threats. yes. as threats. and that's why they were given instructions to go ahead and shoot at them. >> reporter: the sheriff now tells cnn that eyewitnesses have come forward to him. witnesses he says who claim to know what happened here that day. they describe a military-style attack. three boats, several shooters, and hundreds of rounds being fired at two jet skiers. >> the shot that killed david hartl...

>> one thing you have to understand is how well coordinated this is and what the level of scouting and planning and organization is. >> right coming up. >> reporter: these videos of chases at first made to sense. >> yeah. i got it. >> reporter: drug runners caught in the u.s. and then racing back to mexico. >> coming up to the river. >> reporter: their stolen vehicles hurled full speed into the rio grande. >> oh, my god. splash down. >> reporter: at first, law enforcement believed these were desperate attempts to escape. then they began to hear radio traffic. coordinates. >> right there. oh-oh...

>> all units we had a splash down. we had a plan is down in the river. >> they don't mind losing the truck into the river. at the end of the day if they can recover 2,000 pounds of narcotics with an estimated street value between 600 and 800,000 that's what they're going to do is protect that inventory. >> it's going under. suspect just about on my side. >> reporter: inside mexico, the army has visibly taken over much of the security in border towns. local mexican police who are not corrupted by the cartels are targets of them. thousands killed. and americans have been targets, too. >> you kno...